Assist grips are installed on a ceiling surface inside a vehicle compartment to provide a support for vehicle occupants in the compartment. This kind of assist grips having such a structure that cavities are formed at opposite sides of a grip body and hinge assemblies are installed in the cavities in a rotatable fashion, and the grip body is rotatably mounted via the hinge assemblies have been mounted in various automobiles.
On the hinge assembly of this kind of assist grip, as shown in, for example, JP3774845 B, a torsion coil spring for biasing around a hinge shaft thereof is mounted so as to bias the grip body toward a non-use position relative to the hinge assembly by a spring force of the torsion coil spring.
The torsion coil spring to be mounted on the hinge assembly is usually arranged between a pair of supports provided in a projecting manner at a lower portion of the hinge assembly, and is mounted in a space between the supports, with one end of the spring being engaged with the hinge assembly, and the other end of the spring being engaged with the grip body.
The torsion coil spring, at the time of assembly, while biasing the grip body up to the non-use position relative to the hinge assembly, is to be attached between a pair of supports at the lower portion of the hinge assembly, however, the torsion coil spring needs to be oriented in a predetermined direction as its direction and mounted being biased in a torsional state, and thus the work for attaching a small-sized torsion coil spring into such a configuration by hand is troublesome and difficult.
Moreover, the space between the supports of the hinge assembly in the hinge cavity of the grip body is large relative to an external shape of the torsion coil spring, and a considerable clearance is interposed around the spring. Therefore, the torsion coil spring inserted between the supports is likely to be mounted obliquely shifted from an axial center position of the hinge shaft in terms of a mounted state thereof.
Therefore, when the torsion coil spring is attached in an inclined manner between the pair of supports of the hinge assembly, it is difficult to exert a constant torsional torque to the hinge assembly in a torsional direction thereof, and rotational torque between the hinge assembly and the grip body by the torsion coil spring varies for every product, so that it becomes difficult to manage the rotational torque of the hinge assembly at a previously set constant value. Moreover, when the torsion coil spring is attached with its axis obliquely shifted with respect to the hinge shaft of the hinge assembly on which the torsion coil spring is mounted, noise is likely to occur due to friction between coil wires or due to friction between the torsion coil spring and a wall surface of the hinge cavity of the grip body when the grip body is operated to rotate relative to the hinge assembly.
An assist grip arranged is described in JP2010-159032 A such that a torsion coil spring that biases the grip body to the non-use position relative to the hinge assembly is stored in a cylindrical spring case, and the spring case storing the torsion coil spring is mounted to the inside of the hinge assembly.
The assist grip structured such that the spring case storing the torsion coil spring is mounted to the inside of the hinge assembly allows assembling in positional alignment relatively easily when mounting the spring case to the inside of the hinge assembly, but the torsion coil spring is twisted between one and the other ends thereof when the grip body rotates from the non-use position to the in-use position in use, and the coil spring is loaded in a direction to incline its axis, so that the torsional coil spring is likely to be inclined. Therefore, when the torsion coil spring is inclined in its posture along the axis, an outer peripheral portion of the coil spring slidingly contacts an inner surface, sliding contact further occurs between coil wires, and there has still been a problem that rotational force of the grip body by a spring force of the torsional coil spring is likely to become unstable.
The present invention has been made in view of the problems described above, and at least one object thereof is to provide an assist grip capable of stably exerting a rotational force of the grip body by a spring force. Furthermore, other objects, desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.